1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the transfer of information, and more particularly to the update of a directory entry within an electronic communication device upon receipt of an electronic notification.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following descriptions and examples are not admitted to be prior art by virtue of their inclusion within this section.
Recently, telephone directories have become a common feature within telephones and other electronic devices due to the increasing demand for and use of electronic organizational tools. The feature often includes the ability to program and store a plurality of telephone numbers along with corresponding descriptors. Additional information such as mailing addresses, e-mail addresses, or other user-defined information may also be programmed into the directory depending on the storage capacity of the device. The directories serve to store information in an electronic format so that the user may retrieve it quickly. In several telephone apparatuses, a telephone number may be retrieved from the directory and the user may be subsequently connected to the corresponding destination, so that the number does not have to be manually dialed.
As indicated above, telephone directories may be included in a variety of devices to utilize the benefit of organizing telephone numbers, addresses and other pertinent information. Many telephones, including both landline and wireless, contain directories with programmable and storage capabilities. These devices offer the advantage of having a directory and telephone as one unit. Furthermore, directories within mobile telephones present an additional advantage of mobility. Other devices which may store directories include, for example, personal digital assistants (PDA's) and facsimile (FAX) machines.
However, there are limitations associated with the use of current directory systems. For example, currently available systems may allow individual entries to be added, deleted or edited, but such systems may not allow efficient updating of a directory when multiple entries are involved. As communications devices such as telephones, FAX machines and PDA's become more and more powerful, and their use becomes increasingly widespread, multiple situations may arise in which such updating is required. For example, a telephone user changing his place of employment may need to rapidly update his telephone's directory to reflect the change in co-workers. In another example, an employee may obtain a different position within the same organization, and wish to efficiently transfer directory entries related to a particular project to her replacement on that project. Furthermore, a traveler may need to efficiently remove directory entries related to a geographic location that the traveler is leaving.
Management of the above situations may be difficult using current directory systems for several reasons. First of all, most applications require the user to manage the directory manually (i.e. adding, editing and deleting entries), which is tedious, laborious, and error-prone. The manual process can either entail punching a keypad, writing the information on a touch-activated pad, reciting the information in a voice-activated system or any other data-entering process. Furthermore, entry modifications are not typically brought to the user's attention until the user attempts to employ the old information, making an up-to-date directory difficult to maintain. For example, when individuals move or change their telephone number, often the user of the device is not notified until the old number is called. The delay in obtaining accurate information lessens the advantage and effectiveness of possessing and accessing a personal directory. Alternatively, the user may opt to review each entry with a secondary source on a frequent basis in order to keep the directory current. However, this method of entry review is rather time-consuming and often deemed futile since the secondary source may not possess the latest information. Furthermore, entries within current directories must generally be deleted or edited individually, requiring large amounts of time by the user. For example, if the user has several directory entries for one company and the company moves to a new location, the address field for each entry associated with the company must be updated individually. In some applications, a modification may require the manual reentry of all of the information within the entry, thus occupying even more of the user's time.
Often directory information is obtained from database resources, such as directory assistance, computer networks, or internet listings. However, the obtained information must often still be entered into the user's personal directory manually. For example, when an employee changes departments within a company, the directory information for the employee's new co-workers may be obtained from the company's computer network. However, the employee will still need to enter the information into the telephone manually even though the network may have all of the information in the format that is required. Furthermore, current directory applications within telephones are unable to electronically transfer and receive information from other telephones. For example, an entry from one telephone directory cannot be electronically transferred to a directory within a second telephone. The inability of transferring and receiving entries from directory databases limits the effectiveness and use of the directory within the telephone and consequently the telephone itself.
Occasionally portions of directory entries, which may be referred to herein as entities, need to be modified, while sometimes only portions of entities require modification. For example, when an area code has changed for a given set of telephone numbers within a geographical region, only the area code of the telephone number changes while the base number remains the same. However, current directory applications in telephones are unable to update portions of individual entities since the entities themselves are not structured in segments. This task of updating the entire entity is tedious and is often forgone due to time-consuming steps. This problem may lead to an accumulation of multiple entries for the same name, taking up valuable memory space or leaving the user with conflicting information. The programs of the current applications do not query the listing of directory entries to determine if the entry already exists, thus allowing the potential accumulation of equivalent entries.
In addition to the limitations as noted above, many current telephone directories do not offer an easy avenue of highlighting and removing unused entries. For example, entries of a client that a salesperson no longer calls upon may be overlooked and not deleted, thus taking up valuable memory space. Alternatively, the user may know in advance if an entry is not going to be used after a given period of time or can associate a plurality of entries with a certain identity, so that when the user no longer needs the entries, they can be deleted. Removing unused entries allows the user to organize and access directory entries faster. However, the user must currently remember which entries to remove and delete them manually. Since entry removal is a manual process, the benefit of better organization and easier access is sometimes sacrificed due to the time and effort required to maintain the directory.
It would therefore be desirable to develop an organizational and management system for telephone directories within electronic devices that address the aforementioned limitations. It would further be desirable to develop a system and method allowing communication with another device or database without the requirement of maintaining a line-of-sight path between the two entities, but rather by using the inherently built-in communication capability of the devices. The desired system and method should be simple to use and require minimal effort by the user.